Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Beta Interlude [Complete]

[Rorx]

The conversation seemed to dry up in the river, so Gwyn made his way back to the shore and was already dressed by the time Col Mitchell emerged from the woods to get cleaned up. Nodding in passing to the Colonel, Gwyn headed back over to the camp for want of anything better to do, but there wasn't anything much better going on there either. After putting his stuff into the men's tent he decided to go for a fly.

Lifting off he did a circuit of the cleared area before spiralling out and speeding up to his maximum speed. Once he had gotten about 5 miles out he checked his inertial compass and cut in his 'afterburner' heading due (local) north. Relishing the speed Gwyn pushed it as he kept trying to do, but this time it worked, boosting his speed by 100%!

"Yahooo!", he shouted as he broke the sound barrier. After 20 minutes he dropped the afterburner, but found he was still travelling substantially faster than he normally did.

Have to see if the Inertial is any good for getting an estimate of my speed when I get back.

[Rorx]

Things just keep getting better. he thought with a smile, I suppose I should report this to Damien and the other officers when I get back, but with all this stuff about the IOA I'm starting to wonder if giving them a complete rundown on our abilities is really for the best. I know it would probably be a good idea for the SGC to know, but that doesn't mean some clod at IOA isn't going to get spooked about it. Maybe I should leave it and see if anyone noticed the sonic boom, if I'm lucky they'll have thought it was Omar and I won't have to mention it.

With that in mind Gwyn turned back to base, slowing down when still 20 klicks out to a mere 250 kph to reduce the chances of someone spotting how fast he had been going. Those last 20km seemed to drag after the exhiliration of his earlier supersonic run, but he made up for it by dropping into a nape of earth run until he reached the camp.

He smiled to those in view as he landed outside the men's tent, then went inside to find his laptop. He quickly downloaded the data from his inertial compass, erasing the data from the compass afterwards, and saved it in an encrypted file. Calling it back up he compared it with the map data he had downloaded for the Beta site before leaving the SGC and calculated his speeds at the various stages of his flight.

So I reached roughly a thousand kph on afterburner, with an enhanced cruise of about half that. Nice, but it felt like I was using up a fair amount of fuel to do it. I better get more serious about improving my flight efficiency. At least the subdermal dense layer I perfected a couple of weeks ago seems to be without any noticeable drain.

Closing down the inertial data with it's encryption again, Gwyn called up the Goa'uld cloning data he had captured on his last mission, then went outside to find somewhere to sit. May as well be a little more sociable while I try to get this translated. Then I can compare how well I do with Jackson's version when he gets back.

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan saw Gwyn, currently the only other Flier in the group, and took a seat next to him. He knew the look on his face and smiled. "So good Sky up there?"

He'd brought back another of this world's deer, it was curing, hanging from a tree about a hundred yards downwind of camp, almost ready to be cooked for tonight.

[Rorx]

Gwyn looks up at the Major with a smile, "Yeah, nice and clear, with a little cloud above 10,000ft about 30 miles north. It's good to be somewhere we can just open up without having to worry about who will see us. How about you, you had a good run yet, or were you busy with the hunt last time you were up?"

[Ryan Hawke]

"Bagged another buck. Not particularly big, but enough for anyone who wants real food as opposed to MRE's."

"I did a couple patrols, found a nice little spot to fish, I might go see how they bite here in a world without fishing."

"Anything new to report around the camp, or is everyone just doing their own thing still?"

[Mr Fox]

Cam wandered up hearing the last question. "Looks like the girls are having a private chat over in Girl Camp." He smiled briefly the first he'd had since the disastrous meeting, "The boys seem to all be wrapped up in their own thoughts."

"So what about you two? Any thoughts? Not necessarily on my proposal, but just in general? Any plans for using your powers outside of the SGC someday?"

[Rorx]

Gwyn shrugs, "Well, before I gained these abilities I worked for the Uk's nuclear weapon industry. I guess the increased intelligence and the improved understanding I have of science and technology would be useful there."

He gives a brief laugh, "Actually I worked on the nuclear bomb disposal/disarmament team. So the enhanced senses and manual dexterity is an advantage as well."

"However, I'd rather continue boosting us up in general technology, and more especially in getting ourselves out there into space. That's where we belong now."

[Mr Fox]

Cam chuckled and pointed to the ground beneath their feet, "This is out there in space, but I take your meaning." Gesturing up at the stars, "I'd like to convince the IOA to let us form a new base here and make it a place we can be stationed part time. Not that I want us all to be here and only here, but I would like us to have a place we can work from that isn't subject to worrying about Earth. How many times have the SG teams inadvertently exposed Earth to potential destruction from bringing back strange diseases or nanites, or hostile aliens. Tomorrow's mission is a good example. We go out and steal a ship, someone's going to be pissed, and that's ok because the goa'uld are already pissed at us. But. We will be bringing it back here not directly to Earth, and that puts at least one layer between what we do and consequences for Earth. Frankly it's something I thing the SGC should have done years ago from a straight security perspective."

"The Alpha-site is a fallback location that is off the Goa'uld grid and they don't even know of it's existence, it's for a fail safe so that the human race will be able to retreat and rebuild if we are ever defeated, and that's a good idea. We should also have a forward base, then there would be a layer of safety, isolate the homeworld from risks. What do you two think?"

[Rorx]

Gwyn nodded, "Oh I definitely agree, but if we do something like that then it needs to have at least as good a security set u pfor the Gate as we do back at SGC. That means a decent Iris, security teams, perhaps heavy weapons, and a full technical and medical backup to deal with the sorts of threats you just mentioned. Somehow I don't think they are likely to want to spend the kind of money that is all going to cost."

[Mr Fox]

Cam shook his head, "I think you underestimate the power of fear. The IOA's biggest concern and most constant gripe is the danger we put Earth in with all the things we do. I think they would jump at the chance to put a safety net between their hides and danger. Do you know they have three other ships under construction right now? The cost of one of those ships is more than the SGC's entire operating budget for a year. Besides, with a forward base, I think we could afford to be a little bit more aggressive in going after the Goa'uld."

[Rorx]

Gwyn nods slowly, "Yeah, your probably right. Although, unless we start posing as someone else, with different uniforms etc, there is too many of them who know Earth's gate address. Some would know it was us and still send the attacks that way rather than being diverted here."

He shrugs, "Still it would work against the diseases, nanites and Goa'uld who just follow the last address dialled I suppose. Overall I think you're probably correct."

"On a different, space related matter, what's the smallest ship we have that we could put a hyperdrive on? Actually is there one on the 302 fighters? I don't remember it being mentioned when we had that flight session with them back at the Alpha site."

[Mr Fox]

Cam frowned in thought, "It is possible to put a hyperdrive on ships the size of 302s, but it would be a small unit and not capable of moving all that fast, and that is Goa'uld tech. The Asgard and Ancient tech is too big to be put on something that small. The Goa'uld Ha'tak ships, the big pyramids, have hyperdrives that are capable of making it from say Chulak and Earth, but it would take more than a year. When Apophis first decided to attack Earth in ships his closest planet under his control was about a year by ship from Earth. But then they developed bigger drives capable of making the trip in hours, but that required bigger ships to house them. So no, 302's don't normally have hyperdrives, they would take up most of the ships resources, but it could be done, it would be very limited even then. Have to stop and rest the reactor after every jump and the jumps would be pretty short. I wouldn't want to have to make a trip in one. Unless you were going to a nearby star you'd run out of oxygen and supplies long before you finished your trip."

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan had listened and nodded. "I'm career Military Cam, I serve my country to the best of my ability. I'll probably stay with SGC, until I get old and tired, and retire." He chuckled, it wasn't far from the truth. In his heart he also knew he could always not come back from a mission one day.

"In regards to a small ship with hyperdrive capability, it seems if you'd spend all the effort into such a refit, it would either be for reconnassaince, or as a an extremely fast mode of transit, which is simply not possible."

"I like the idea of a forward base, better to strike the enemy over their own turf and infrastructure, which is more likely to be damaged that way, than to have to fight them on ours. Besides, if we have one major weakness, it is Earth itself."

He pauses a moment. "If Earth is taken out, that's pretty much endgame for us. I support most any plan that leads them away from our homeworld."

[Rorx]

"Perhaps we should consider trying to find a suitable planet to use as a base that is closer to the Goa'uld planets in normal space. That would shorten attack and support lines for other attacks/raids as well as working through the Stargate network."

"But I supppose we don't really have the personnel or ships for that sort of thing anyway at the moment. Nor are we likely to anytime soon."

[Ryan Hawke]

"True, but finding such a world is still a good idea. Better to know where you can play ball, before you get everything together, than to gather up everything you need and find you don't have a field to play in."

[Rorx]

Gwyn nods, "Yeah, I guess the main problem is tracking down the spatial location that goes with a planet with a gate." He turns towards Cam, "Do you know if the gate address bears any relation to it's real space location, so that we could try to do a search for a short list of gate addresses in the right region of space?"

[Mr Fox]

Cam nodded, "Yeah, they do correlate to their spacial locations."

[Rorx]

Gwyn addresses them both, "Ok, that helps then. Now we just need to know where the various system lords regions are in space so we can pick an area to try to search and try to pick about a dozen Gate addresses that are in or close to that region. Hopefully at least one of them will be clear of the Goa'uld."

He looks to Cam, who normally has his datapad with him, "Have you got much in the way of gate and spatial data on that thing or should we wait to start the search until we return to the SGC?"

[Mr Fox]

Cam shook his head. "We'll have to wait until after our mission. The truth is the To'kra haven't really shared what is where so we are still in the dark as to where most of the System lords are." He grinned, Of course that hasn't stopped us from figuring a few things out from our own experiences. We have a basic idea what direction the major system lords are in, but no specifics. Plus, there are a lot more Gou'ald out there than the 10 or so that cycle in and out of the inner circle of the big time system lords. From what we've learned there are dozens of minor system lords that may only have a couple of planets and we never know if we're going to stumble into one of them accidentally when we go through the gate to a new world."

"The planet we're going to in the morning for example we have specific intelligence on it because one of the To'kra owed us one when we saved his life, and by we, I mean one of the SG teams. Plus, Carter had some memories of it from Jolanar of Malkshu who used her as a host for a short time."

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan nods. "Perhaps we can procure a map when we go then. If nothing else it will give a good look at how their logistics run at least in one area. That can prove useful if we can make a surgical strike here and there to disrupt things, especially if we can make seem like it's someone other than SGC."

[Mr Fox]

"Only ones that will have maps like that are those close to the center of power. The Gou'ald like to keep their subjects in the dark as much as possible so there won't be many with access to information like that. My plan doesn't involve getting close to those people this trip. Maybe next time."

"Not that we'll pass the information up if we get a good opportunity, I just doubt we will if all goes according to plan."

[Rorx]

Gwyn nods, "Yeah adding to many objectives to a job is a sure way for it to fail. We can start on correlating gate and spatial data after we get back. Hell, maybe whatever ship we grab will have log of recent systems it has gone to that might help with that."

[Ryan Hawke]

"True enough. If You guys will pardon me a moment." He walked off, returning with a Deer on a spit, made for turning and roasting over the open fire. He set it over the fire and began to turn and cook it.

"I know we have our own foods we brought, but when camping I've always preffered to live off the land. Besides, a man can only eat so many MRE's."

[Rorx]

"Looks good. I'm more familiar with pig roasts from my days with historical renactment groups. You could find a fight somewhere in the UK almost every week from March to October if you knew the right people."

Gwyn toes a nearby box of rations and drinks, "Although I wish the US forces didn't seem to have such a fascination with Gatorade."

[Ryan Hawke]

"Amen to that."

He chuckled as he turned the spit.

"Tea, hell even of soft drink to break up the monotany. But no, that ain't happening. I'd settle for something other than Orange. I mean Fruit Punch isn't half bad."

[Rorx]

"Christ! Not tea! Some coffee, even fruit juice would at least have the vitamin C. Yeah, Fruit Punch is better than Orange all the time. Even a bottle of Ribena, Barley cordial or something would be better than Gatorade all the time."

[Rorx]

The chat rambled on through a variety of subjects as the 'deer' was roasted and served to the collected Specialists. Eventually everybody turned in for the night, some eager, some with trepidation, but all wondering what the next day would bring.